When I started strength training three and a half years ago, my main goal was to regain some of the muscle I had lost from years of inactivity due to chronic fatigue syndrome.
After my initial two and a half years of barbell training, I accomplished that goal and more. Not only had I improved my muscle mass, but I had become stronger than I’d been in the previous 27 years.
However, what I had failed to do was eliminate 40 years of excess fat around my abdomen and chest.
Here’s something I learned after three years of lifting. If you’re in my age range, you won’t lose significant pounds by simply weight training.
If you’re a serious lifter or doing a lot of high-intensity training you might induce weight loss if you’re burning huge amounts of calories.
But if you’re an older guy you won’t lose weight. Sorry, exercise doesn’t produce significant weight loss.
Now here was my specific problem. The excess fat I was carrying around posed a significant health risk.
Even though I wasn’t terribly overweight my waist was approaching obese territory. And it was out of proportion to my legs and hips. Also, I was carrying around a disproportionate amount of fat to muscle.
This is called a skinny-fat body type and is considered by health professionals to be metabolically unhealthy.
With that in mind, my goal now was not only to continue to get stronger but also to become leaner and healthier.
In part 1 of this series, I’ll discuss the problems associated with a high waist measurement and excess body fat.
In part two I’ll explain how I was able to increase my strength and lose body fat and significant inches off my waist.